Saturday 6 August 2011

En Plien Air Event - The Kibworth Post Mill

The Post Mill in watercolour

We don’t have a meeting in August due to so many people on holiday, so I thought it would be nice if those of us left behind could get together and paint ‘en plien air’ somewhere local. I arranged for us to visit Kibworth Windmill, not far out of town, which is not open to the public.

On arrival, typically, there was a thundery shower, but we needn’t have worried, because the sun shone through and it turned into one of those lovely, warm summer evenings. It has been many years since I did a painting outdoors, and it felt great to just sit there with some friends and just paint. The only other thing that I could have wished for was a younger pair of knees, as mine didn’t half feel stiff when got up from that tiny stool upon which I sat!

Ken in action!

Landowner Janet Briggs showed me around the back of her garden, behind which were these huge gravel pits. She said that they had been used for supplying gravel for the building of the A6 trunk road many years ago, which passes through the village. Nearby, there were lots of outbuildings and barns that were just begging for someone to sketch them! Just alongside the mill was this little hen coup, which housed some small chickens with lovely fluffy heads – a marvellous subject for a quick sketch!

Looking at some of the work others were doing, I got quite a surprise to see that Ken Lilley had included me sitting at my easel in his painting! Both David and Michael amazed me at how quickly they knocked off several good sketches.

Fluffy headed chicken sketch

All in all, this was a wonderful little outing, and much enjoyed by the few of us who attended. Hopefully, we can build on this success, and arrange one or two ‘en plien air’ events to supplement our programme for 2011/2012.
Right: Linda frames the subject.

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